Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Oatmeal Cookies PINK??

Calling all foodies.

Today after school the kids and I took to inventing a PINK version of oatmeal cookies.We start with the basic oatmeal cookie recipe, one that I have used plenty of times, then change it up a bit.We used whole-wheat flour, added strawberry jam and raisins to the cookie dough.The dough looked perfect and our sample of the uncooked dough was yummy, though the kids are sure they’ll get worms if they eat uncooked dough again.

I was very excited about putting them in the oven.The 11 minutes of baking time seemed like 10 years to the four of us.Finally, the timer went off.Kids were jumping, yelling and dancing.

When I opened the oven door the cookies were NOT done and not even close.They did finally finish and they are yummy.So, why should you care??Well I need your help.WHY ARE MY COOKIES SO DARN FLAT?Is it the flour, the jam or both?Do you know?All of my ingredients were fresh. Help?

The cookies look perfectly ok to me. As to why they became flat, I guess because the dough is too soft, thus doesn't hold its shape under heat. Perhaps it is meant to be this way, just like some peanut butter or choc chip cookies. Your kids are adorable, esp your daughter's curly hair :D

They look so delicious! I think they're flat from 1) too much moisture, and/or 2) too much fat. What was the texture of the dough? I know that's kind of hard to describe, but was it really sticky? Greasy? Soft? Whole wheat flour does need more moisture than all-purpose flour, so it's helpful to know what the texture of the dough was like.

There's a lot of moisture being added from the 1 cup of butter, the brown sugar, and then the jam. Try substituting granulated sugar for half the brown sugar.

Also, 1 cup of butter is quite a bit of fat for the amount of oats and whole wheat flour. It'll make for a super rich and buttery cookie (yum!), but it will increase spread. If the butter is cut to 1/2 or 3/4 cup, that will help.

Selba's suggestion of adding more flour will also work, as that will alter the moisture and fat ratio of the recipe.

Try one of those things (don't do all 3 or that'll lead to other problems!!!) and hopefully the cookies won't flatten out. When you try these cookies again, please let us know how they turn out!

Hi Cassie...this cookies look delicious...I think is due to the addition of the strawberry jam, I must try this recipe...my husband loves oatmeal cookies...by the way did the cupcakes turn out good? First day of first grade...how exciting :-)

If only I could bake...I might be able to give advice on why your cookies are flat. However, my son loves oatmeal pies and this would be a much healthier version than what he enjoys now. I would not dare same the brand Little Debbie...shhh!.

I agree with some of the other folks on here--there is probably too much moisture in the batter. If the strawberry jam was a straight-up addition to the original recipe (and you didn't subtract some other moisture), that's probably what it was.

That being said, the picture of the cookies looks GREAT! I'm not typicaly a fan of super thin cookies, but these look fantastic. I'm assuming they came out more on the chewy rather than crispy end? YUM!